A one time payment (for 1-3 years) to protect something that's most likely over 500 bucks is worth it.
I've been doing really well with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Kaspersky Anti-Virus for a few years now; not planning to change anytime soon.

Microsoft Security Essentials stays the fuck out of your way unless there's an actual problem.

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This. I love MSE. Although the fact that it is so unobtrusive makes me wonder sometimes if it is actually doing anything... But I do manual scans, etc. so all's good! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, even over most of the paid AV products.

The best AV out there and i've been using it for years is Eset Nod32. You can get the Suite or just the AV by itself you can pay for it or *cough get legit keys online cough* either way it's all good.

It won't hassle you at all even if there is a problem because it will sort it out for you. You can leave it on newb mode or expert mode and do what you please either way it'll do everything for you unless you tell it you want to take over .

I'd recommend getting the suite which comes with the AV + antispyware protection + Firewall (much better then the windows one) + antispam module and a whole lot more. And it updates regularly sometimes just once a day sometimes several times a day .